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This year I was lucky enough to be a festival artist at the National Young Writers’ Festival 2015. When I found out that I had been offered a spot as a festival artist I literally screamed and ran around my house, much to confusion of my housemates. National Young Writers’ Festival is a hoot! I had attended in 2014 and had absolutely fallen in love with the festival.

If you need any proof of how magical National Young Writers’ Festival was, you can just have a watch:

OH MY THE FEELINGS! It was a truly beautiful experience and I cannot recommend going to NYWF more. So many lovely exciting people just having a go. As one person said to me, what makes NYWF so special is that everyone is just trying their best. For many people it’s the first time they have chaired a panel or read to such a large audience. It’s a space where people are allowed to fail and experiment.

I attended a lot of things, but my favourite events were the Late Night Readings: Flirting with the Law, Screenwriting Workshop with Magda Wozniak, Late Night Readings: Breakups and Breakdowns and the Under The Sea Enchantment Ball (of course).

The Screenwriting Workshop was my favourite. I’ve always been curious about how writing rooms work and this session gave me a lot of insight. In the session we were treated as Home and Away writers and worked through the process of how to script a weeks worth of content. People were pitching ideas left right and centre and bouncing ideas off each other. It made me realise that writing for tv is a lot about writing to constraint and working as a team.

Blurb:When it comes to the writing community, playwrights and playwriting can often get swept under the rug. With playwriting one of the oldest forms of literature, it’s high time we put the spotlight back on the stage. These bards spill the beans on the playwriting industry, and the issues they face as playwrights today.
A Newcastle Story –Participants: Felicity Pickering, Finbah Neill, Thandi Chindove, Ewa Ramsey.

Blurb: In partnership with the Newcastle Museum, NYWF takes you on a trip into Newcastle’s history. From lightbulbs to biscuits, earthquakes to coal heaps, join these brilliant young storytellers as they delve into the museum’s collections and dig up some fascinating tales of Newcastle past, present and future.

The Plays The Thing was a great relaxed session. It was my first time being on a panel.

A Newcastle Story was more nerve wracking. A few weeks before the reading I had caught the train to Newcastle for the day to get a private tour of the Newcastle Museum. I had to find something in there that inspired me and write something in response.

Newcastle Museum had a series of portraits of hotels and pubs from Newcastle with stories about the pubs displayed on the side. I ended up writing a piece about an 18 year old girl who starts working at a hotel in Newcastle that is filled with backpackers and the hotel comes to represent that period of her life.

I have a few snaps from the A Newcastle Story reading:

All in all NYWF was such a great experience and I hope to attend again next year!

Last year, while working on my thesis, I stumbled upon a great app called Tapestry. The app allows you to make short tappable stories. It’s been a while since I put any creative writing on this blog, so I thought I might share this small piece with you. It’s very tiny, a vignette if you will. I hope you enjoy it.

There are lots of opportunities for emerging writers and theatre makers at the moment. Playwriting Australia has made a callout for Dramaturgy Interns. These interns will recieve ‘access to training and mentoring by industry professionals, and get to develop their practical skills in script assessment and explore the process of giving dramaturgical feedback.’

The internship is available to Sydney and Melbourne based playwrights, directors or dramaturgs. Applications close Monday the 24th of March, 5pm.

Additionally, there has been a call out for applications for the Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing. The award is open to emerging writers enrolled in either an undergraduate or honours degree. For the first year ever, the award is open to both students from Australia and New Zealand.

First prize is $4000. The highest placed student from Monash University will receive $1000. Both winners will be published in Verge, Monash University’s student publication. Entries have to be 1500–3000 words. Applications close Thursday the 17th of April.

My monologue ‘Facon’ is being performed in an amazing show called ‘Bite Me’. There are only four more chances for you to see it! Make sure you get down to Australian Theatre for Young People before it’s gone forever!

Three weeks ago I went away to the ATYP National Studio. I met talented people, took in beautiful scenery and churned out some writing I’m pretty stoked about. I could have not generated the work that I did without the unique environment that the National Studio provided.

If you are a young writer I encourage you to apply for the National Studio. I think the call-out will be next year but you can be sure to know by liking/following/stalking Fresh Ink on facebook, twitter and checking the website.

If you are a philanthropist who is wanting to donate to something artsy, I definitely encourage you to support the Fresh Ink program.

Great things have come out of the program such as The Language of Love: a film by young writer Kim Ho. It has reached 489,634 views (at the time of writing) and attracted global attention.

The UTS Writers’ Anthology launch was celebrated on Friday 24 May as part of Sydney Writers’ Festival. The launch marked the end of a long process of editing and selection undertaken by the editors: Zoë Adler Bishop, Lucy Faerber, Rhys McGowan, Lonie Pizarro, Callum Rhodes, Jacqui Williams and Justin Wolfers. The process took only six months, half the time of a usual publication, and involved the selection of 32 pieces from over 300 submissions.

It also marks me getting published in the UTS Writers’ Anthology alongside some fantastic authors. I am very happy to have found myself with a shiny new publication, as can be seen by my happy squinty eyes.

To see all the wonderful writers please click here. If you click on each writers name you will see a little interview with them and also their favourite line (I only just discovered this).

You can purchase the ebook version of the UTS Writers’ Anthology here and follow the tumblr here.

The opening night was a lively event with many of the Sydney scene’s movers and shakers, and theatre makers, in attendance. Delicious rolls were on offer from new franchise Mr Crackles. The five spiced pork belly with crispy crackling and Vietnamese salad proved to be a favourite among the theatre goers.

This week will showcase a collection of nine monologues and duologues titled ‘The Solitudes’, directed by nine directors and performed by nine actors. Little God, directed and written by AFI -Award winning actor Nicholas Hope, will finish off the exciting festival with a performance from festival co-producer Jeremy Waters.